Property investment

If you are one of the many people looking for relatively secure ways they can invest their money and earn a decent return, property investment has probably crossed your mind. Investing in property is easy if you have the money, but making a decent profit is a much more complex process. Here is everything that you need to know about buying and selling investment properties in the UK.

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How To Invest In Property In The UK

Investing in property has long been a popular option for people looking to improve their financial security and grow their asset portfolio. If you are only going to invest in one thing, it is likely to be property.

There are several ways that you can invest in property. Not only can you buy a property that you expect to increase in value thanks to its location, but you can also increase the value of an investment property by renovating it strategically. The right renovations can add significantly more value to a property than they cost you to undertake.

The UK is home to numerous desirable locations where the property is all but guaranteed to fetch a high price. However, the hot locations for property investors change regularly. If you can get ahead of the curve and spot an emerging opportunity before other investors, you can make a killing by just buying property and sitting back while its value increases.

How To Extend A Lease

If you have purchased a property on a leasehold basis, then you should consider extending the lease when the remaining term drops between 90 years. The less time that you have remaining on a lease, the less valuable the property will be when the time comes to sell. If you don’t act quickly when you enter that all-important 90-year period, the value of your property can nosedive very quickly.

This mostly applies to investors who have purchased a stake in a block of flats or similar property. To extend the lease on a block of flats or another leasehold property, you need to speak to your landlord. The longer you extend your lease for, the more it will boost the value of your property.

How Much To Extend A Lease

The costs of extending a lease will depend on how long it has remaining until it expires. The less time remains on your lease, the more expensive it will be for you to extend it. Regardless of how long is left on your lease or how much you spend extending it, you can expect to spend around £2,500 on professional fees, which include the legal costs to the freeholder and the valuation fee.

If you know that your lease is heading towards the 90-year mark, then you should aim to extend your lease sooner rather than later. The longer you wait to do it, the more it is going to cost you. If you have a short lease, lasting 60 years or less, you should talk to a solicitor about the costs involved, as they can be significant, stretching into the tens of thousands.

How Much Are Solicitors Fees For Selling A House

Whenever you are buying or selling a home, it is a good idea to have a qualified solicitor on hand to help you out. There is a lot of paperwork and other legalese involved in property sales, and you want to make sure that you have someone to guide you through any parts of the process that are unfamiliar to you. Of course, this means that you will have to be willing to pay for their services.

The legal fees involved in the sale of a property are usually in the £850-£1,500 range, although this can vary according to a range of different factors.

How Much Are Solicitors Fees For Buying A House?

Whenever you complete the purchase of a property, you will need to pay a conveyancing fee to your solicitor. This fee will cover the cost of all the legal work that they do to assist the sale. In England and Wales, this fee is sometimes covered by the lender when you purchase a property. If not, you will have to pay it yourself.

The legal fees can range anywhere from £500 up to £1,500. You may have to pay for some of your solicitors’ services as they provide them, but you should make the bulk of the payment once the purchase is completed.

How Much Deposit Do I Need To Buy A House?

If you are going to be buying a house with a mortgage, most lenders will require you to put up at least 5% of the property’s value as a deposit. However, most lenders will require more than this, sometimes as much as 20%. For most lenders, a figure of 10% of the property’s value should be enough for a deposit. The average deposit for first-time buyers in the UK is just over £50,000, which works out as around 18% of the value of the property they are purchasing.

How Much Deposit To Buy A House?

In working out how much money to set aside for your deposit when buying a house, there are two things that you need to consider. The first of these is the average value of property in your local area. It is easy enough to get a rough idea of typical property prices by simply looking online. Websites like Zoopla or Rightmove can give you this information very quickly, as can consulting with a professional estate agent. The other important factor to consider is your ability to repay the mortgage. As with any type of debt, you should be cautious before you take on the burden of a mortgage. It’s easy to find typical mortgage rates online, and there is even a number of mortgage repayment calculators online that you can use to work out what your monthly payments will be based on the interest rates available.

Remember that the more you are able to pay as a deposit, the less you will have to borrow to cover the rest of the costs of buying the property. You can see this for yourself by using one of the aforementioned calculators to compare the repayments when you borrow 95% of the property’s value, representing a 5% deposit, and when you borrow 80% of the property’s value, representing a 20% deposit.

How Much Deposit Do I Need For A Mortgage?

This will depend on your lender. If you are able to put down 20% or more of the property’s value as a deposit, then you can approach virtually any lender for a mortgage. Some mortgage lenders will offer you a mortgage for a deposit as low as 5%.

How Much Deposit For A Mortgage

There are numerous mortgage deposit calculators online that will help you to work out how long you need to save to pay for a deposit on a property. Using these calculators and checking the websites of mortgage lenders will enable you to get an idea of how realistic a deposit of 5%, 10%, or 20% is for you.

How To Find Houses That Need Renovation

As with most things, the internet has made it much easier to find houses that are in need of renovations. Investing in properties that are available on the cheap because they require some work before they are habitable is a tried and tested way of investing in property. If you choose the right property and you carry out the renovation works in the right way, then you can sell that home and walk away with a very tidy profit.

Before you start looking at potential renovation properties, you need to first work out exactly what your budget is. Remember that you aren’t just paying for the property, you also need to pay for the subsequent renovation works. Miscalculating your budget can leave you holding the bag and stuck with a half-renovated property that you can’t afford to finish.

Once you have established your budget, you can then use a website like Rightmove to look for properties available within your price range.

How Much Is A Mansion?

In the UK, a mansion is any large dwelling house. When most people think of a mansion, they think of a large house that backs out onto a grand estate. Mansions that also include significant grounds will cost more than mansions with more modest gardens.

The cost of a mansion in the UK can vary wildly according to location. There are some mansions available within London that cost upwards of 14 million. Most mansions are in the million-pound price range; if you managed to find a mansion for sale below this price, then it is worth seriously considering snapping it up.

Investing in property is an excellent way of improving your financial security and diversifying your asset portfolio. Of course, if investing in property was easy, then everyone would be doing it. There is certainly money to be made, but only if you approach your property investments with caution.